Social club members - Eddie's had enough!

[the president]

Dear all, finally found my password.
Now that I've got your attention let's just go through some of these issues.
Without trying to be a smart alec, when you go to the MCG look across the ground to where the Olympic Stand used to be and you will find the problem there is a big hole and that is the solution and the problem to to most of the issues.
That stand used to hold most of the function rooms and the entire MCC members.
This year every group whether it be social club members, cotories, ie Woodsmen, Magpie Club etc and corporates have had a massive reduction in space.
When you say what are we doing about it the answer is simple, building the stand!
That is not to say that what we do now cannot be improved.
First up Culprits legitimate complaint about the tables.
The club received numerous complaints from Social club members saying people were sitting down at these tables and squatting there for the entire game not allowing others to use the tables for dining and at the same time taking up an inordinate amount of the scarce space available.
So what will happen for the rest of the year is that tables for dining will be put into the room with a notice that people will be moved on once they have completed their meal.
Anthony Trainor, head of membership, will be stationed in the room and will police the turnover of the tables.
The chest high tables for dining and standing will also remain which many members thought was a good compromise.
Please relise that decsions are made based on the best result for the most number of people. We don't think "how can we annoy the members as much as possible!"
I read one post that said the MCC areas are better than ours. That is because they ARE our facilities when the stands are built.
I am personally inspecting the Collingwood Social Club next week and will inform in due course what to expect.
In the meantime our magnificent Lexus Centre gives people the oppotunity to dine before games and have a drink back with the players after the matches, remeber those good old days.
I'm not too sensitive to feel too insulted by the personal attacks but to say we haven't been thinking of our members is rediculous.
We have set our club up to have the best mid week, before, during and after game facilities in the history of sport in this country.
As for this "we only look after corporates" rubbish, I do find that highly offensive.
We have just spent the last six years of our lives fighting everyone to build the Lexus centre. We have fought everyone to get the best possible result for the new MCG facilities for all members of our club.
For the record everyone pays in the president's dinner, including the president. That is for myself, my wife my guests even though we sold sponsorship of me at my lunch!
That is I have a sponsor who pays a large amount of money (that of course goes directly 100 per cent to the club) to sit with me at my lunch for which I pay for the privilidge. As I should.
Everyone pays at Collingwood and we pay what we can for the good of all and the club.
Let's not forget that our club, players and coaches have been housed in a condemned building for the last ten years and not one complaint.
Why? Because they knew what was coming and knew that in the interum it was worth putting up with some inconvenience for the good of the club.
If you want to be a North Melbourne member get going.
I don't want any misunderstanding on this.
We are all Collingwood members.
We have all been inconvenienced during the transition from Victoria park to the MCG and now from the old MCG to the new and Lexus Centre.
I am putting in place more opportunities for people to voice their suggestions and for complaints to be answered in a far quicker manner.
But if there is no room there is no room. That is it in black and white.
Don't think this club is mine I am but one in the passing parade of Collingwood memebrs who have made our club what it is today and more importantly what it will be tomorrow.
We have three weeks to go this year. We are trying to grab every available piece of room as soon as it comes on line especially for next year.
I read these posts and I respend with our staff immediately. I don't have the time to respond on this or any other site everytime there is a complaint.
That I have on this one and in the detail shows how much this issue has been looked into.
If you have any suggestions please write them down.
We want to know. We will do all we can.
There was one thread that said we are nothing like Hawthorn! Thank God.
Eddie.

[Eunos]

Have to agree with Tess. And even the "Eddies had enough" title is an insult.

[Dale61]

Erm, too many typos for me to believe this is from the illustrious one.

Ed's too much of a professional to allow this to be posted without being proofed first.

Still, nice try.

[foreigner]

[cooldewd]

Actually, the typos etc convince me that it *is* Eddie (very consistant with his posts on EB&W).

Thanks for taking the time Ed, I have faith in you and know that you will do what is good for all at Collingwood.

I am not kissing butt...I just know that you care.

The Dude

[Eunos]

Dale, as far as I know, that nick is registered to Ed.
I do recall his typing style as having the odd typo. Been a long time though.

Maybe our mods can give us the word?

[MarkT]

If I wanted to be a North Melbourne member I'd F@KIN well be one but I am not because I love Collingwood. Not North, Collingwood. Always have and always will.

As a Collingwood member I don't expect anything much at all from The Club. I am happy enough to go alone and watch my club play in black and white stripes and yell at the umpires because I can't see the obvious free kick against us just like I have done all my life - long before I was a member who could afford social club membership and a reserved seat. My best Collingwood memories are standing at Vic Park as a kid and watching us play with heart every week. Standing all day, through 2 matches and being cold and wet while watching us beat Carlton beats a warm cozy social club any day. That is not really the issue. However if you provide a social club facility and it isn’t up to scratch then you should want desperately to fix the situation for the sake of your members and the attraction to them and future members. If for no other reason than selfishness I would hope Collingwood and its administrators could see the wisdom in having people feel they are part of Collingwood and that they belong at Collingwood.

I am happy to take my wife who is also a member and my 20 month old junior member son along and just sit in my seat and watch the Pies but surely it would be a whole lot better if I wanted to get there earlier to have a drink or a meal in the social club, wanted to stay later for a drink and a chat and spend some money “at Collingwood”. My son has no idea what the heck all this Collingwood stuff is all about yet but he will know one day and hopefully he will take his son and/or daughter along in 20 to 30 years time and so it will hopefully go on and on. This is not just my issue it is my son's issue and perhaps his children's issue. That is what makes a club like Collingwood able to pull 80,000 to the G when we are going poorly and when we have won 1 premiership since 1958 while Fitzroy must people content themselves with seeing their FFC symbol prominently displayed once every 2 years in a lip service marketing exercise.

When I visited the social club facilities they were embarrassingly poor. The room was not just small and crowded. It was messy, the food was just poor and the atmosphere was not enticing. These things don't depend on new stands they depend on effort and initiative.

I am not talking about having crystal chandeliers and chesterfields. I am not after the Australia Club. If that's what I wanted I'd join that club. What I want is a place that will make me want to return next week. I want that for 2 reasons. Firstly because I want to want to return and secondly because I want everyone else to want to return because that would be awesome for Collingwood.

Now what does that entail? I guess it might be different for different people. I could talk about what it would mean for me and rest assured it wouldn't be a whole lot. What is far more important though is the matter of process.

We have a number of members dissatisfied. What do we get? We get a predictable "we are building one". Well no kidding, I was wondering what that big hole was. I though it was just something that had sucked a bit of common sense from our club. Yes there is a new facility in the pipeline and that is a result of doubtlessly a fantastic effort by our administration. How is that an excuse for not optimising what we can do now? It isn’t! It is like saying we won’t try for the rest of the year because we will be better next year. That is just not the point. Yes we will have better facilities and I am sure we all understand that. The fact is right now people are dissatisfied and they are told to stop whinging. maybe that is a fair call but regardless how about we get on with improving everything that is seen as sub standard. Even if people have largely unjustified complaints they need to be addressed and additionally treated with respect.

This is not the forum to solve all the problems that might face Collingwood. What it is however, is a forum for Collingwood people to talk about what they love about Collingwood what they hope for Collingwood and what their positive and negative experiences about Collingwood have been. As such it is a valuable sounding board for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps these things would be better handled in the form of a suggestion board or something.

The bottom line for Collingwood though is that the members have a right to have opinions positive and negative and the club has an obligation to hear them and address them. I subscribe to the adage that we should ask what we can do for Collingwood rather than what Collingwood can do for us. However I also subscribe to the theory that Collingwood must never just be about a group of people paying to watch a group of players who represent Collingwood which becomes and abstract concept. Collingwood must always be us. Us equals everyone that considers themselves Collingwood.



Now Eddie, if you read this please understand that i do not expect a response. You have better things to do that respond to everyone that posts on the net. Frankly I’d rather you spent your time with a corporate sponsor, getting Chris Judd or having dinner and a cuddle by the fire with your wife. If you do however read this then all I ask is that you consider one simple question in your own mind.

Why on Earth wouldn’t Collingwood want to maximise the experience for every Collingwood person every time they come into contact with The Club? That is what I call a good investment.


EDIT:
Apologies to everyone if this comes across overly critical or even sarcastic. Having read it back I think it may. I have no doubts about where the hearts of those that matter are. I am however concerned when Collingwood people are concerned. I am concerned because I want Collingwood to be the best club it can be. We must demand excellence or we won't ever achieve it.

[Joel]

It's Eddie.

[cooldewd]

[Dale61]

Thx to those that have corrected me, and if indeed it is Eddie, I'm available for any proofreading position that becomes available.

[Lone Ranger]

Eddie has stated the club will act and outlined how they will act. Thanks Ed for doing that.
The solution outlined sounds a reasonable one to me. Lets all now take a step back and wait to see what happens next home game.

[the president]

Apologies, my PA sent it through before I had subbed the copy.
The topic heading was a bit of fun to get people's attention and a play on the original title.
Again let me be clear.
I want these forums to let us know exactly what you want and also for us to tell you what the restrictions are on us.
If you have a solution for a problem other than "make it go away" let me know.
Again Anthony Trainor will be there, in the room making sure as many people as possible get a fair go.
Don't forget the MCC run the room and the catering. But let us know what we can do to foot them up the backside.
Please don't think that anything written was done in an aggressive way, just letting you know that your posts are taken seriously all the way to the top and back again within the organisation.
Now let's fix up the Bombers. Eddie.

[Dale61]

With anything new, there are bound to be teething problems. Give the club time to fine tune everything and I'm sure everyone will benefit from it.

[MarkT]

[foreigner]

Well said cooldewd ... at last some sensible comments.